


Snake pit

by Apollynos



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Childhood Trauma, Dark, Dark Web, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Inspired by Law & Order: SVU, Kidnapping, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Own Characters - Freeform, Panic Attacks, Past Child Abuse, Past Sexual Abuse, police work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2020-11-26 04:55:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20924507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apollynos/pseuds/Apollynos
Summary: "Are you all right?" Damen looked worried at him and gently laid a hand on the shoulder of his boyfriend and partner Laurent."Yes, everything's fine I guess", he said weakly and stroked his thumb over his own pale wrist, which Damen didn't go unnoticed and he gave Laurent a questioning look."This has stopped a long time ago, you know that, so don't worry about it", he said softly and added: "But this case. . . It reminds me so strong to it and let it all sprout up again."





	1. A little Party...

**Author's Note:**

> This work is inspired by the Law & Order SVU Epsiode "Friending Emily" (S 14 E 06) - The plot-point is the same as in the Episode with a few changes and additions in the end. :)
> 
> *
> 
> Please read the tags for Trigger-Warning!

„My parents wish us lots of fun on this little school trip“, Ancel said smiling as he put his mobile phone away. Nicaise looked up and nodded. “Thank you, that’s sweet of them.” Disgruntled, he looked at his own mobile phone. No words from his parents, as usual. He sighed heavily and put the phone away.

“I really hope the museum trip will at least be fun”, said Nicaise, looking bored at his fingernails.

“Oh, I think so”, Ancel grinned. “And even if not, we can still sneak away and have fun, right?” He winked at Nicaise who shot him a small mischievous smile.

“If you’re looking for fun, I know where the good parties take place”, someone suddenly joined in their conversation and Ancel and Nicaise looked up into the face of an unknown girl. She smiled broadly and friendly at them.

“My name is Lyra and I would like to invite you to a party in the student society”, she introduced herself.

Nicaise looked at Ancel. They exchanged a short meaningful looks and began to smile.

“Thank you Lyra, we’d love to come”, Ancel replied. “I’m by the way Ancel and this is my friend Nicaise.”

“Nice to meet you. Can I have your e-mail Ancel? Then I can send you the address of the student society”, she explained, still smiling nicely and holding out her mobile phone to him.

“Sure.” Ancel took it and started typing in his e-mail address in the text field, then gave Lyra back her mobile phone.

“Perfect! I’ll send you the address right away but I guess you’ll have to go now?” She looked in the direction of the teacher of the two, who was threateningly leading her whistle towards her lips. Sighing, Nicaise and Ancel stood up.

“You’re right, we’ll see you later then”, Ancel said as a goodbye to her and Nicase smiled at the girl before they ways parted.

*

“Hey! I’m really glad you two made it here.” Lyra greeted Ancel and Nicaise who just walked through the door. The Party was going full on, loud bass-music played through the halls and Nicaise could make out so many drunken persons already. This is going to be fun, he thought. Lyra handed them out some drinks and wished them a lot of fun, before she left them to go to a friend of her. Ancel and Nicaise looked at each other a little confused at first, but had to laugh, they bumped their drinks together and made their way deeper into the house to enjoy the party.

Not long after their arrival, Ancel had found a boy who was not that much older than himself and caught his interest pretty fast.

“You look really beautiful, has anyone ever told you that?”, asked the boy, who introduced himself as Berenger, and stroked a red long strand of Ancels hair behind his ear and over his shoulder.

“Yes, you did told me that a few times in the past ten minutes but I like to hear that”, Ancel replied and gave him a lovely smile. Berenger had to laugh at this comment from him and bent over to kiss Ancel open mouthed and let his tongue slip into his mouth. Ancel put his arms around his neck and gave in to the deep passionate kiss.  
The evening is going to be promising.

One room further, Nicaise had settled down on a bar stool in the kitchen and drink on drink after another, which had aroused the interest of a young man who looked so much older than the other students here.

“You drink that stuff like water”, he commented and Nicaise looked up at him.

“Hm, maybe I just drink water”, he replied with a cheeky wink, eliciting a quiet laugh from the man.

“I really wonder what a pretty boy like you is doing here all alone? Aren’t you a little too young to be at a party like this?”

“Good genes, I’m not as young as I look. But to answer your first question, a friend and I were invited by Lyra, I am sure you know her.”

“I do indeed know her. Lyra is my sister.”

“Really? No offence but you both doesn’t look that much alike.”

“No offences taken but you really have a loose mouth.”

The man grinned dirty at Nicaise, who rolled his deep blue eyes in annoyance.

“Oh yes, I have and I’m sure you’re curious to know what else this mouth can do, I know that look on your face but let me tell you, it’s not gonna work ‘cause I’m not interested in you.”

Stunned by this the man blinked a few times confused at Nicaise before he caught his smile again and said: “You’re really interesting. Would you mind if I bring you another drink?”

Nicaise just shrugged with his shoulders: “I don’t care, do what you want.”

The man still smiled at him and walked over the table to get them both new drinks, while Lyra shows up. She leaned over the kitchen counter to grab a snack. “Oh you talked to my brother already? I hope you both get along well so far?”

“I think so”, Nicaise said bored.

“He got a loose mouth and is pretty cheeky”, the man explained and handed Nicaise his drink, who accepted it.

“Oh really?” Lyra grinned indefinably at her brother and before she could say something other, a girl appeared behind her and reached for Lyras hand and pulls her away, back to the living room. The man and Nicaise were alone again.

“I think I’ll look for Ancel”, Nicaise announced and jumped down from the bar stool, he took his cup with him and strutted past the man who just looked at him wordlessly.

*

“Ancel? Hey, are you in there?” Nicaise asked through the closed door and knocked against it. The music was so loud and somehow he doubted that Ancel would hear him through when he heard a loud moan coming out of the room. Nicaise eyes widened a bit and he leaned against the door. The moan was followed by a small laughter and another lustful moan.

Oh yes, that sounds a lot like Ancel, thought Nicaise grinning and walked away from the door, sipped his drink and then made his way back to the main hall of the house. Then he would go back to the hotel alone, while Ancel enjoyed himself with whoever was with him in this room. He went past the kitchen and looked into it only to see that the man was not in there anymore. He also couldn’t make out Lyra, so he decided to leave the party. He was already pretty bored and nothing here could catch his interest longer than five minutes.

He pulled his mobile phone out of the pocket of his blue shorts and wrote Ancel a message.

_Enjoy yourself and your One Night Stand ;) See you later back at the hotel. I’ll go ahead, somehow there’s not so much going on here for me and I’m pretty bored without you._

As soon as the message was sent, he went further towards the front door, when he noticed how he slowly became more dizzy and sluggish. He put his hand to his temple and gently massaged it with soft pressure, looking straight forward and everything began to spin around him.

“Oh fuck”, he cursed quietly and leaned against the wall at the front door to gather. All he could see was the unknown man coming at him. He was talking something but Nicaise didn’t understand exactly what he was saying. The man put his arm around Nicaise’s narrow waist to support him and took his hand, than he led him outside.

The last thing he heard was the man as he said: “Don’t worry. I’ll take you home safe.”


	2. The Arles-West University

„Hey you two sweethearts, you can keep your jackets on“, greeted Nikandros, Laurent and Damen who just walked through the door.

“What’s up?” Laurent asked, pulling his jacket back over his shoulders.

“The captain has a new case for us, you should go to the hotel here, your contact person is in the lobby and is already waiting for you there”, Nikandros explained briefly tied to them and handed them a note with an address: “Let us know what you found out there and we’ll take care of the rest after your call.”

Laurent raised an eyebrow, but then he grabbed Damen and his coffee and went with him to his car.

“It’s not even eight and we’re on our way to a new case”, Damen complained quietly and rubbed tiredly over his eyes.

“Mh, I know but it’s our job, let’s have a look what we can expect there as a new case for us”, Laurent said quietly and started the engine of the car, while Damen entered the address into the navigation system.

*

“And the two boys didn’t show up again? Nor they contacted anyone in the class?” Laurent asked again and looked at the teacher in front of him.

“Yes, they didn’t appear and the only sign we got was a photo of Ancel, he sent it to a classmate who had sent the picture to half of the class”, she explained, looking restlessly between Laurent and Damen.

“Can we see the photo?” Damen asked.

The teacher nodded and pulled out the cell phone from the girl who received the picture, she showed the photo to the two detectives. They both looked closely to the photo, it showed Ancel, a young boy with red hair tied to a wild bun where some strides plucked out from the sides, smiling happily into the camera while the slightly older boy next to him gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Is this typical for him and the other boy who went with him?” Laurent asked and gave the teacher a cautious look.

“Sadly, it is. He and Nicaise, that’s his best friend but he’s not in the picture, they’re little troublemaker, they always have their own heads but that’s how boys are at that age, I guess”, the teacher explained, looking at her hands kneading the hem of her skirt.

“Did Ancel maybe tell a classmate where they were going?” Laurent continue to ask her gently.

“Yes, they were going to a part, one of their friends told me that… I believe it was in Arles-West?”

“That’s the university nearby”, Damen said and looked to Laurent who nods confirming.

“Call Nik to grab Pallas and that they have to look there, and send them the photo for the interviews so we can at least find Ancel.”

Damen nodded and got up, he called Nikandros to tel them what lead they already had and sent them the photo of the missing boy, then he went back to Laurent, who was still talking to the teacher and trying to calm her down but also get a little more information’s about the other boy, Nicaise, while they keep an eye on the classmates mobile phone. Maybe one of the boys try to contact her.

*

“There’s nothing better than waking hungover students early in the morning, right”, said Nikandros amused and slammed the car door behind him. Pallas looked rather less amused about it and rubbed over his eyes.

“Long night?”

“Something like that yeah”, the younger man replied with a light smile on his lips. Nikandros laughed and patted Pallas on the back. “Well, let’s see if we can get you a little more awake with that, because the boys still haven’t called and maybe those party hooligans have some answers for us.”

They climbed up the stairs to the student society and knocked on the door, which was opened by a young student standing in front of them in open dressing gowns and boxer shorts. His skin was pale and dark shadows had formed under his eyes.

“Yes, what can I do for you? The party is already over”, he said yawning.

“NYPD. Good morning”, Nikandros said, grinning crookedly at him: “We have some questions about last night’s party here.”

“Oh Shit”, the boy mumbled under his breath and stepped aside, leading the detectives into the living room, where they found more hungover students. Pallas wrinkled his nose and Nikandros also looked rather unimpressed by this scenario.

“How can I help you?” asked the student and sat down on an armchair.

“Two boys have been missing since yesterday and we have reason to believe they’ve disappeared from this party”, Nikandros explained, pulling out his mobile phone. “Do you know this boy?” He showed the picture from Ancel and the other boy to the student.

“I don’t know who that is”, the student answered unimpressed and leaned back.

Nikandros sighed: “Listen, we can do it the other way too, if I look around here like this, I’ll find easily ten crimes at once that would bring you at least some years, you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

The student let out a heavy breath and said: “Well, I really don’t know the boy you’re looking for but I know the other boy on this picture. He is my friend.”

“And where can I find your friend?”

“I don’t know man, I wasn’t paying attention to who was going where from that party with who when I was dealing with some pretty ladies.” He grinned dirty.

“You mean the underage girls here?” Pallas intervened and pointed to a girl who was lying on the sofa and slept – She was certainly not older than 15.

“I don’t pay attention to that. Age and name were quite unimportant here last night”, the boy explained mockingly and leaned forward.

Nikandros sighed: “Okay, well, than another question. Nicaise? Does the name move something in you? Little boy, was here with the other boy, did you see him?”

The student pinched his eyes together and bit on his lower lip: “I think so, yeah, I saw him with the redhead for a long time, and he then disappeared.”

“Has he talked to somebody here?”

“As I told you before, I have no idea who’s been hanging out with who or something and I don’t really care about this!”

Nikandros was about to give another harsh answer when Pallas’ mobile phone rang: “Captain?”

“Pallas! The technology has located the phone of one of the missing boys, it’s in the same building as you are, close by.” Jord voice said at the other end.

“Great, we’re going to search, thanks for the information”, said Pallas and hung up: “Nik, one of the boys must be here, the phone has been traced.”

“Perfect. Let’s search the rooms then.”

*

Ancel slowly woke up from last night and when he discovered Berenger beside him, a big grin crept on his lips. He remembered last night where he got knew him and spend it with him. He crawled over to him and put his arm around him to pull onto him, than he gave him a little kiss on the lips. Berenger woke up and smiled at Ancel. “You haven’t left yet?”

“Why should I?” Ancel asked, laughing.

“I don’t know, thought it was just a hot number and nothing more”, Berenger quietly admitted, what makes Ancel smile.

“You know, you’ve catched my interested and I’d be happy if this didn’t just stay at a one-night stand.”

“Hm, I’m glad about this”, Berenger hummed contentedly and kissed Ancel, letting his hand slide down over Ancels naked back and he lightly grabbed his ass. Ancel sighed satisfied at this action, as it knocked on the door.

Berenger broke the kiss and Ancel rolled from his body, so he could stand up and walked to the door. “Ryan… Damn it, how often I need to tell you… Oh?” Berenger cursed as he opened the door, confronted with two detectives.

“NYPD”, Nikandros said dryly: “You must be Berenger, am I right?”

“Uhm. Yeah?” He was pushed aside and the two detectives came into the room. “Look, I have prescriptions for the meds here.”

“That’s not what we are here for”, Nikandros explained and then looked to the bed. “You must be Ancel I suppose?”

Ancel nodded carefully, pulling the blanket further around his waist. “If it’s because he slept with me… It was consensual and he’s also 18.”

“It’s about your friend”, Pallas intervened.

“Nicaise?”

“Yes. Is he in the room too?”

“No, he was at the party with me, yeah, but I was with Berenger most of the time. I thought he went back to the hotel?”

“He never made it there”, explained Pallas and sat down on the edge of the bed: “Your teacher called us because you two didn’t come back to the hotel this morning.”

Ancel’s eyes widened and he took a deep breath: “Where is Nicaise? He had written to me that he would go back and wait for me there? Why isn’t he there?”

“We were hoping you might now where he was”, Nikandros said and looked at him compassionately.

Ancel shook his head and even more strands of his red hair came loose from his already destroyed bun. “Shit, this can’t be really happening. I left him alone at some time of the evening, we came here together and then… I shouldn’t have left him alone.” His voice trembled: “I’m sure he would have written me if something happened to him. I thought everything was fine… I… God damnit, he knocked on the door, I heard it but… Fuck.”

“Sh, calm down Ancel”, Palles said and put his hands on his shoulders, squeezed them slightly. “Did he write you again after his message?”

“I… I don’t know. I haven’t looked at the phone since his last message.”

Berenger had gone around the bed to give Ancel his mobile phone, then sat down with him and stroked his back in a soothing way.

Ancel took the phone and unlocked it. “Oh God… He sent me something after his message.”

“What did he send to you?”

“Fuck…”

Tears gathered in his eyes, he turned the phone to Pallas and showed him the display of a video Nicaise send him. Pallas took the phone and went over to Nikandros to show him the video; he raised his eyes and looked at Ancel and Berenger: “Would you two come with us to the department? I think we can talk there a little better.” Then he turned to Pallas: “The Captain, Damen and Laurent should also watch the video. I’ll call them when we’re on our way and let them know about this.”

“This is all my fault”, Ancel cried and let himself sink against Berengers chest, who put his arms around him and tried to comfort him and calm him down a little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm glad to see that you Guys seemed to enjoy this fanfiction. :3  
This makes me really happy! Hope to see ya next chapter again. <3


	3. The Video

_„Don’t worry, kid. I’ll take you home safe, I promise.” The man speaks in the video, his voice rough but somehow gentle. Nicaise had filmed the ground, he was walking barefoot and you could watch him go to a parking lot. The reached a car, while the man soothes Nicaise with the same sentence as he reached out with one arm and opened the trunk for him. “Come on, just get in there and I’ll take you home, you’re almost there.” Nicaise had climbed into the trunk and the video ended there._

“He’s smart, filming his kidnapping was brave. Stupid somehow but brave”, Jord said: “But unfortunately that doesn’t really help us, the material is not sufficient for identification at all.”

“That’s true, though”, Laurent said quietly looking away from the screen, a cold shiver had run down his spine, he rubbed comforting over his own arm under the table before looking at his colleagues.

“Ancel told us on the trip that he had received an invitation to this party by e-mail”, Nikandros explained and looked at Pallas, who called the e-mail on the screen and said: “With the help of the e-mail Ancel’s mobile phone was hacked to get all the data about him and unfortunately also about Nicaise.”

“But how can that be?” Laurent sat up and looked questioningly over at Pallas.

“Well, the two boys wrote a lot together and exchanged a lot about themselves in their chats, also with other people. Ancel has so often written about Nicaise, it was easy for hackers to get more private information about Ancel and Nicaise.”

“And so the man chose Nicaise as his victim”, Nikandros concluded thoughtfully.

“Looks like but didn’t Ancel mean a girl asked him out for this party?” Laurent interjected.

“Maybe we have two perpetrators? She the bait and he the kidnapper”, said Pallas, looking up from the screen to Laurent, who just pulled his lips and looked at the tabletop in front of him.

“Ancel’s parents know and are coming by as soon as possible”, Damen said as he entered the meeting room.

“What about Nicaise’s parents?” Jord asked wonderingly.

“I couldn’t reach them anywhere”, Damen replied with worried expression.

“The teacher told us that Nicaise doesn’t have the best relationship with his parents and that Ancel’s parents take care of him most of the time”, Laurent explained absent.

Damen looked at him worriedly and sat down next to him, stroked his back and felt how tensed Laurent was but he slowly began to relax under the touch of his hand.

Jord sighed heavily: “This promises to be complicated.” He looked into the circle of his detectives and then said: “Damianos, Nikandros, go take care of Berenger. Pallas, Laurent, you talk to Ancel about it, try to get a description from him of what this girl looked like, something that will take us further. In the meantime, I’m going to tell Rochert to run a picture of Nicaise through the facial recognition, maybe we’ll find something on the internet if his kidnapper is one of those kinds of pervert I suspect.”

*  
  
“So Berenger, you were at the party too”, Nikandros began and sat down on the edge of the table opposite him.

Berenger looked up: “Yes, I was. So what?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure you saw something then. Especially since you spent most of your time with Ancel.”

“And what do you think I should saw?”

“Was Nicaise with you?”

“The little boy who’s still missing?”

“Yes.”

Berenger sighed and closed his eyes, trying to search his memories before saying: “It could be that Nicaise was with us for a short moment. Ancel introduced me to him as well and as Ancel and I got closer, Nicaise left at some point but I don’t know where.”

Nikandros lowered his head; the answer didn’t really get them anywhere.

“Look. I don’t know where Nicaise might have gone.”

“Did you see if he talked to anybody else at the party?”

Berenger’s eyes widened like he remembered something. Something unpleasant that might cause him problems. Damen looked up curiously and walked over to him at the table, supported his hands on the tabletop and the back of the chair. “If you know something, tell us right away because time is running out for us and maybe for Nicaise.”

“I…”

“Berenger! Talk to us, you know something; I can see it in your eyes. I’m asking you one simple question, okay? Did Nicaise talk to anyone at the part? Yes or No?”

Berenger took a deep breath: “Yes! Damn it. Yeah, he talked to someone at the party.”

“There you go, was that so hard?” Nikandros asked: “And who was that somebody?”

“It was… Govart. He talked to Govart. He’s not a student anymore but he comes to our parties with his sister every now and then. He always has… the stuff with him, so Ryan allows him to be there”, Berenger told them, sliding down the chair more and more.

“By stuff you mean drugs and alcohol?” Damen asked him.

“Exactly.” Berenger blushed slightly: “He’ll give us that for the parties and he’ll be allowed to stay in return.”

Nikandros and Damen exchanged clear looks.

“But I swear to you, I don’t know what Govart’s intuitions are, I barely know this man. He’s just there and goes after every party and doesn’t show up until the next one. I don’t know him that well, believe me.”

*  
  
“Hey Ancel”, Laurent said gently as he walked with Pallas through the meeting room door. “Are you feeling a little better so far?”

Ancel shook his head. He looked even more destroyed than this morning, as Pallas noticed and felt compassion for him. Laurent and Pallas sat down with Ancel at the table and Ancel looked up at them, his green eyes looking glassy towards them and his nose tip and cheeks slightly reddened from crying. “Have you found Nicaise yet?”

“Unfortunately, no, we have a few questions for you about the girl who sent you the invitation”, Pallas explained to him and then passed the word on to Laurent, who was always better dealing with such situations than he was.

“So Ancel, did you know the girl who sent you the invitation?” Laurent asked and studied Ancel’s body language to see how to best proceed with the boy to get conclusive answers.

He shook his head again and said quietly: “No, I didn’t know her. She approached us in the hotel lobby and ask us out for the party, after we made some jokes about how boring the school trip is and what we could do else to distract us from this.”

Laurent nodded. “Okay, listen, the invitation you got, it was to hack your mobile phone, so the girl got some information about and also about Nicaise.”

“But… why? Why would she want information about us? I don’t quite understand this…”

“You also saw the video on your phone, right? The one Nicaise sent you?”

“Yes I saw it”, he answered, trying to hold back his tears: “He was kidnapped, right? That was a video showing his abduction…”

“Right. You know, we are doing our best to track down Nicaise and free him from his kidnapper, but we need your help for that.” Laurent explained calmly.

“What else can I do? I already mess things up, I failed him. I should never have left Nicaise alone there.” Ancel cried again. Pallas sat over to him and took him carefully in his arms to calm him down.

“Can you describe us the girl who sent you the invitation?”

Ancel seemed to think, he wiped the tears away from his eyes with the back of his hand and took a deep shaky breath before saying: “She was relatively tall, like me, she had brown long hair with a grey strand in the front, grey eyes and she wore a leather strap around her neck with a feather, as well as a buttoned bracelet in red and black.”

“Good Ancel, that definitely going to help us somehow.”

*

Laurent had left the meeting room early, while Pallas was still reassuring Ancel after the interview and telling him that his parents were already on their way. Laurent stood at the coffee machine and let the brown hot liquid run into his cup, while he leaned tiredly against the counter and let his head hang.

“Honey, you look as if we have three days of rain”, Damen said and laid his hand on the back of his boyfriend, who turned to him sighing. “You’re as funny as ever.”

“Hey, that’s my job or you’d just go in here like a plant.” He gave him a big grin and Laurent had no choice but to return it weak.

“There we go”, Damen said amused, stroking Laurents bridge of the nose with his finger: “What’s on your mind? You’ve been looking so depressed since we saw the video.”

Laurent looked down to the floor and rub his hand nervously over his leg, before quietly saying: “The video… The man in there who talked to Nicaise, he sounded like… He talked to him….” Laurent broke off with a heavy breath and Damen looked at him worriedly, nodded understanding: “I know who you mean; you don’t have to talk any further.”

Laurent let himself sink powerlessly against Damens chest: “I don’t even want to imagine what this pervert will do to this little boy.”

Damen put his arms around Laurents back: “He won’t do anything to him.”

“Are you sure? Every minute that passes, he could be suffering from the man. Damn, he is only 13.”

“I know Laurent, but trust me, that am what we are here for, he won’t hurt him and our best people, including you, are on this case. We can do this. We will find him. Safe and sound, okay?”

Laurent sighed. He knew that Damen was right. Carefully he released himself from his embrace and rubbed his eyes with one hand before nodding. “You’re probably right.”

“I’m always right”, Damen said amusedly smiling.

“But only because today is Wednesday”, Laurent hummed back.

“And otherwise I’m never right?”

“Nope.”

Damen grinned. It was good to see his boyfriend smile again, he did it much too rarely and if Damen could manage to make him smile, it was worth a lot to him and the day wasn’t even that bad anymore.

“Guys, sorry to destroy your moment”, said Nikandros who came into the room to pick up Damen and Laurent: “Rochert found something and the Captain said we should have a look at it urgently. Seems like we got something.”


	4. The Live-Stream

„What did you find?“ asked Damen as he came into the meeting room and leaned against the wall, while Laurent sat down at the table and looked curiously at Pallas behind the laptop. “Rochert found something and sent us a link”, explained Pallas and clicked on the link: “It’s a link leading to more illegal links on the dark web, the facial recognition found something there.”

“Dark Web?” Laurent frowned.

“It’s deep and hidden inside the net and you can’t get there via any ordinary browser, the Dark Web is peppered with illegal websites, everything from weapon sales to child pornography is there”, Pallas explained to him and looked up worriedly. Laurent had still a cool look on his face but Pallas knew that the catchword child pornography has touched something in Laurent that was unpleasant to him. Damen seemed to have noticed this, too, because he had stepped behind him and had put a hand on Laurent’s shoulder and gently squeezed it.

“Do you know behind which link the facial recognition found something? Did Rochert say something about this?” Jord asked and looked at the big screen in front of him, on which the image was projected. Pallas nodded and clicked on a link that actually seemed harmless at first – It was pink and the name was “Lolita Ville”.

_“Oh good morning kid”, said the man, pointing the camera at Nicasise, who sat up confused and scared as he looked around himself. “Where am I?” the boy mumbled fragilely._

_“You’re live on the internet right now”, the man explained to him with a gentle voice and set the camera on something, then he stepped into the picture but only visible from the upper body downwards, even when he sat down on the bed next to Nicaise. The man put his hand on the blanket under which Nicaise’s legs could be seen. The boy flinched back and looked at the man in front of him with big deep blue eyes._

_“Look I brought you something new to wear”, said the man and bent over to the side of the picture, then back in and handed Nicaise a small pile of clothes. “They’ll look lovely on you. I can’t wait to see you in them.”_

_“I want to go home. Please”, Nicaise pleaded: “I’ll do everything you want.”_

_The man let his hand rest on Nicaise cheek, cupped it a little as he leaned to him and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. “We will fresh you up now”, he said and stood up._

Laurent’s hands clenched to fists and he closed his eyes, turning his gaze away from the video. “Pallas, what exactly were we looking at?” His voice was sharp and Laurent had trouble keeping his breathing calm. Damen stroked his shoulder soothingly, trying to make him relax a little even though he knew it wouldn’t be that easy.

Pallas swallowed hard and still looked with big eyes at the screen in front of him: “This is a live stream. The man is making a live stream.”

“Can we track this down? Or can we take it down?” Jord asked.

“No… I mean, I can try but it’s like it came out of nowhere, I hit granite when I try to retrace the video”, said Pallas and gritted his teeth.

“I need photos”, said Nikandros: “Maybe Berenger can identify the man.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jord frowned and looked at Nikandros questioningly.

“He knows the man, he said it was the brother of the girl Ancel was talking about all the time”, explained Nikandros and Jord nodded: “All right. Ask him, so we knew at least who our culprits are.”

*

“Can you identify anything on this picture?” Nikandros had thrown a printout of a screenshot onto Berenger’s table. The boy took the picture closer to him and looked at it closely before saying: “Yes, that’s definitely Govart. I recognize his bracelet. His sister has the same.”

“Good. Thank you”, said Nikandros and took the picture back, and then he left the room again and gave the picture to Laurent. “Go and ask Ancel if he recognizes the bracelet. So we can make sure they both identified them.”

Laurent took the picture and then went into the room where Ancel was sitting. He had sat down on the sofa, his hands buried deep in the pockets of the sweat jacket and his legs pulled close to his body, his gaze lowered and he didn’t seem to have noticed Laurent. Laurent took the chair from the table and pushed it in front of the sofa, and then he put the picture on the small glass table in between. “Do you recognize the bracelet?”

Ancel looked up and sat down straight, bent over the table and nodded. “Yes, Lyra, the girl we met, has the same bracelet. But… This is a man wearing it?”

“Yes, she has a brother”, Laurent told him: “Berenger saw how he talked with Nicaise.”

Ancel looked at him, his lips trembled and his eyes watered. “Did you find Nicaise?” he asked weakly.

“Not yet but we know that he’s alive.”

“If you haven’t found him, how do you know?”

Laurent was silent and Ancel seemed to slowly dawn, he let himself fall back into the sofa cushions and began to cry.

“This is my entire fault.”

*

“Pallas, what’s taking so long?”

“Captain, I can’t take this page down or track it down, it’s like it doesn’t belong to any IP-address and I’m not a technician”, Pallas replied harshly and lowered his gaze, sighing: “I’m sorry. I bet Rochert could’ve done something about this but… it seems nearly impossible.”

“Okay.” Jord sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose: “Just keep trying it, okay?”

Damen, who was still in the room, looked up and saw two adults coming through the door of the precinct. “Pallas, turn that off now.”

Pallas looked up and reacted directly, unfortunately too late.

“Was that Nicaise?” asked the woman in a trembling voice: “Where is he? Where is Ancel? Oh God.”

The man next to her took her in his arms and turned her away, smiling apologetically at the detectives.

Pallas shot Damen a guilty look, while he just sighed and let his head sink a bit.

“You must be Ancel’s parents, right? Come with me”, Jord said and lead them into the direction of the room where Ancel was sitting with Laurent, who tries to calm him down.

“Oh Ancel”, his mother sighed and stormed immediately towards her boy. Laurent got up and went over to Jord, letting Ancel’s mother take care of him.

“Mom, I’m so sorry, Nicaise and I… I left him alone, it’s my fault that he..” Ancel said, trying to hold back another wave of tears. His father also sat with him and held him in his arms. “Boy, everything is fine; it’s not your fault.”

“It is”, Ancel cried out and gave in to tears, sinking into the embrace of his parents.

Laurent looked at the scenery with mixed feelings.

“Let’s give the three of them a moment, okay?” Jord suggested and Laurent nodded approvingly, together they left the room.

“I’ll take care of them, go make some coffee for you or rest a little, okay?” Jord looked worryingly at Laurent, while gave him a faint smile and left him wordless.

*

Damen saw Laurent go to his desk and decided to intercept him directly, leading him to the staff rest room and placing him on a mattress.

“Damen. I’m fine”, Laurent started his protest a while ago and tried to get up again to pass Damen.

“No Laurent, I saw your look during the video and how much the case triggers you”, Damen said gently.

“I…” Laurent sighed and drove himself stressed with one hand through his blonde hair: “I’m fine. That was just a little too much excitement at once, we have far more important to do right now. Nicaise must be found as quickly as possible.”

Damen, however, remained stubborn and caught Laurent again with his arm as he made an attempt to run past him.

“Damen!”

“Laurent, listen, if this case is too much for you, you tell the captain. Promise me this, I don’t want you to feel bad about it and relapse.”

Laurent looked at Damen sadly, he knew that Damen was right. He wrapped his arms tightly around his own torso as he always did when he was unwell with the situation.

“Damen, I promise you if anything happens I’ll talk to Jord but now… We don’t have time for this. I’m fine, I promise.”

Damen still didn’t trust Laurent very much in this; he was good at keeping his feelings to himself and saying if something burdened him and rather threw himself into work even if it got to him and this case here. This case was on a personal level with Laurent. Damen knew this. Laurent knew this. Jord knew this.

It was just a matter of time when Laurent would break down in this case and Damen was afraid because of this.

“Okay. But promise me that you’ll let the Captain send you off of this case as soon as you realize you can’t do it anymore.”

“I promise.”

*

“And I thought our job was hard”, Nikandros murmured as he opened the door to the FBI office. Pallas followed him and looked around the office with big eyes, nodding slowly as confirmation of Nikandros’ Statement. The office was full of photos and missing persons reports of children, on the desk in the middle were three screens and a man sitting in front of them looking at the videos and pictures.

“As you can see, I don’t have a lot of time, so what can I do or not do for the SVU?” The man asked and turned to them.

Pallas swallowed, found no real words to formulate them into an answer.

“We are looking for a boy, I’m sure you have already received the link from us?” said Nikandros.

“In fact I did, but as you can see, I haven’t gotten around to doing anything in that direction yet. There’s just too many of them.” He pointed with his pencil to a video of a little boy, maybe four years old: “Do you see him here? He’s been missing for months, no one can trace back where his video came from and who recorded and uploaded it. The girl over here;” He pointed to another video of a girl about 12 years old: “She’s been missing for five years, no trace either.”

Pallas lowered his gaze depressed and Nikandros bit his lower lip. “Is there really nothing you can do about our case?”

“If I could, I would do everything I could to clear these missing cases all at once, but I am only human. Do you know what happened to the worker here before me?”

Nikandros and Pallas shook their heads.

“He killed himself, it was too much and too frustrating in the long run he had.” The man sighed heavily: “I can only give you one tip, there is a criminal hacker. He’s still sitting in Rhykers but will be transferred in two days, maybe he can help you.”

“What’s he in for?” Nikandros wanted to know.

“He took three child porn sites from the dark web down and the Yankees’ site”, the man explained them simply.

Pallas shook his head without understanding and Nikandros nodded only briefly. “Thanks for the tip. You should have given this man a medal for his work.”

“The judge didn’t see it that way. He was Yankee’s fan, you know.”


	5. The victims

„So the page on which your perpetrator has his driver is a clearing house, it’s like a packhorse for the dark web. Many posts there their stuff – Drug dealers, child porn producers, terrorists and many more”, he explained the hacker from Rhykers, who sat in front of a laptop with Nikandros and Pallas in an interrogation room.

“That’s our hacker from Rhykers?” Jord asked, looking through the glass from the outside and listening in.

“Yes, he’s shut down three pedophile rings from the dark web, he’s our best chance to track down Nicaise and Govart”, Laurent told his captain.

“So basically we’re waiting for Govart to go into the net of our hacker?” Jord concluded with a questioning undertone.

“There are two steps to Govart but first the hacker has to go to the side that distributes his videos, basically it’s a digital Trojan horse”, Damen continued the explaining to the Captain. Jord let out a heavy breath and rubbed his nose bridge with two fingers: “On some days… I miss the knock on the doors.”

“We’ve got him!” The hacker exclaimed, delighted and typed something in. Damen and Laurent looked at each other and went into the interrogation room.

“That could be anywhere”, said Nikandros as he looked at the screens in front of him. The world map was zoomed out and lines appeared on it and connected different places.

“Rio.. The Czech Republic.. That draws circles”, Pallas murmured and also looked at the screens.

“I can take the page straight down if you want? I am into the network of him”, the hacker offered them.

“No. It’s our only connection to the boy”, Pallas said warning. “Can you track down the last uploads Govart sent to the driver?”

“My virus can read anything, just a moment.” The hacker typed something into the laptop again and a list appeared on the screen.

“Is the upper one a video of today?” Nikandros asked when he saw the title.

“Yes, it’s a livestream. ‘Nicaise day two’ is the title”, the hacker confirmed to him: “2000 viewers so far.”

Laurent’s eyes widened. This world was so sick; he thought and barely shook his head over it. Damen next to him noticed this and gently pressed his forearm to calm him down, for which Laurent was definitely thankful.

_“Our little prince is ready, freshly bathed and ready to take your wishes aren’t you Nicaise?” Govart asked with an amused humming, he entered the bathroom with his camera and Nicaise stood in front of the bathtub with a blue towel around the narrow body. His dark brown hair was wet and he looked up scared to the camera. He still stands silent._

_“I’m going to brush your hair now, and you’re about to start with your imagination”, Govart continued in a soft voice, brushing out the boy’s wet hair. “You’re so beautiful”, he sighed heavily: “You have so many fans who want to experience your first performance, Nicaise.” He told him as if it was good news and Nicaise should feel flattered about these words but the boy was still scared and tensed._

*

“Our hacker found uploads that go back five years. Every year a new victim”, Pallas explained, putting pictures of various uploads on the table in front of the prosecutor. Lazar took a close look at the pictures and then looked back at Pallas and Laurent, indirectly asking them to continue.

“He seems to walk at a rhythm, a new victim every year. Nicaise is thus the sixth”, Pallas said.

“Always the same scenario?” Lazar asked.

“Yes, it starts in the bedroom first, then it continues in the bathroom and then…” Laurent faltered. He hardly managed to pronounce the next words himself and was glad that Pallas took it from him: “Afterwards it goes on according to the wishes of the spectators.”

Lazar raised his eyebrows and looked at the two detectives in amazement before looking back at the pictures in front of him. “I understand”, he said: “In the last video of Nicaise he asks the audience to express wishes. How long are the pauses between the videos?”

“That varies, sometimes it’s only a few days and sometimes much more”, Laurent explained and breathed deeply.

Lazar shook his head and sighed: “Place and time unknown. Outside noise?”

“It’s a room without a window. Clothes, furniture, blankets, toys… That’s all dozens of goods”, Laurent said and walked around the table, pointing to the pictures and then shrugged his shoulders rather helplessly.

“So we only have the victims?” Lazar asked.

“Yes”, sighed Pallas.

“If he’s done with them, they might start using drugs or prostitution”, Lazar said: “Probably they’re in the computer systems. I’m preparing arrest warrants.”

Pallas’ eyes widened and he stepped forward to the prosecutor: “Why arrest warrants? They’re all victims?”

“I’m sure you find something. We have to find Nicaise fast. It’s already too late for the others”, Lazar explained himself somewhere and passed by Laurent to leave the room.

Laurent raised his gaze and looked over to Pallas, who looked quite surprised at Lazar’s statement.

“Somewhere he has a point”, Laurent said quietly, burying his hands in his back pockets.

Pallas nodded cautiously: “I didn’t expect him to handle this case like this.”

Laurent smiled slightly: “Depending on the type of case, you always get to know new sides of your partner.”

“I guess that’s true”, Pallas agreed and then turned to Laurent: “Let’s get on with our job.”  


*

“So this seems to be our first victim?” Nikandros said questioningly and compared the picture with the poster on the wall to the strip-club.

“And over there she already seems to be coming”, said Pallas nodding in the direction of a woman with long brown hair, it was braided on the sides and her face has sharp features.

“Are you Pameal Louis?” Nikandros asked.

“Depends on who is asking. My Show is in an hour, so you are way too early”, the woman defended herself coolly and kept her distance from the two detectives. Pallas and Nikandros looked at each other and took out their badges.

“NYPD. You were reported missing five years ago”, said Nikandros calmly. The woman sighed and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Well, what do you want from me?”

“We need your help. Govart has another child”, Nikandros explained briefly.

“Stop. We all have to do something to survive. I do my thing”, she said and stroked a strand of her long hair behind her ear.

Pallas lowered his gaze over her, and then looked to the side towards the strip-club: “Yes, I see that.”

“There are worse things than this”, she said: “Believe me. At least they took care of me.”

Pallas sighed pitifully and shook his head: “I’m sure he didn’t do that.”

“Govart? No, he certainly doesn’t, he just takes care of himself”, said Pamela pejoratively: “I mean Lyra.”

Pallas and Nikandros became attentive.

“What can you tell us about her?” Pallas asked.

“I’m sure she’ll tell you the same thing I do. She got worse, she ran away and Govart saved her from the street.”

“Did she ever mention where she was from?” Nikandros asked.

“From somewhere from the west, I think, but I can’t remember exactly.”

“You know Pamela, if we catch this guy”, Pallas started and was directly cut off by Pamela: “You won’t.”

Pallas looked at her astonished questioningly before Pamela continued: “And I am now called Lady X.” Her voice was sharp, her smile annoyed and she just walked past the detectives, through the door into the strip-club.

*

“Yes, that’s Rhys”, said the road worker who took the photo Damen and Laurent showed to him. “But he wasn’t kidnapped. He ran away and then came back with a wacky story.”

“Did he also say that he was forced to make internet movies?” Laurent asked, who obviously could not believe as well as one could not believe his own child in such a case.

“Look, I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told him. I don’t want to hear any more about it”, the man defended himself immediately.

Laurent flinched a little and looked for the right words. How can you be so stubborn? He played restlessly with his fingers and then said: “As it turns out, this story may be true.”

The man sighed: “Why are we talking about this? He died of an overdose three months ago.”

Laurent breathed deeply, moving from one foot to the other before saying: “I’m very sorry. What happened?”

“He’s put his life in order. He had a job, and then he started taking drugs again. He claimed he was confused because he met this woman”, the man explained, visibly more restless than before.

“This woman, did Rhys tell you a name?” Damen asked attentively.

“Lyra”, the man answered.

“Then he started with these kidnapping stories. I thought they were excuses for the drugs.”

Damen and Laurent were silent. The man looked from the investigators at the picture of his son and then back again, his gaze had changed. His eyes were filled with sorrow and remorse. “So he was telling the truth?”

Damen nodded. Laurent averted his gaze. The man cried silently.

*

“Yanis Dumot?” asked Nikandros as he walked down the street with Pallas and found their other victim who was about to take pictures. The young man turned to the detectives and his wife intervened: “Detectives, excuse me but this is a photo shoot for a new fashion magazine, we have a permit for that.”

“We wanted to talk to your photographer in private. Yanis if you would”, said Pallas, looking kindly at the young photographer.

“I’m sorry but I can’t, I’m Yani’s wife and his lawyer”, explained the wife and Pallas was already annoyed by her.

“We have questions about two of your friends. Govart and Lyra”, said Nikandros: “Yanis tells me everything, these pigs… First they sullied him and then they wanted to barter him away in all seriousness”, the woman explained to them.

“This is something Yanis should tell us himself”, Pallas said slightly harsh and then looked at Yanis, who just nodded and said: “Govart handed me over to a guy. An intermediary. He…”

Yanis was interrupted by his wife: “He wanted to send him out into the street. I saved him from this life. So if that’s all? We still have work to do.”

“If you take photos for a fashion magazine, why do your models wear so little?” asked Nikandros with one eyebrow rose.

“How funny”, the woman said bored and turned away.

“You know, my wife has done a lot for me”, Yanis explained and bent down to his pocket to get a small card. “I also take pictures privately, do you have children? Nephews? Nieces?”

“No”, said Pallas and took the card which Yanis had handed over to him, he had written something on it too.

Pallas and Nikandros said their thanks to Yanis for the small help and turned away, they both walked down the street again and Nikandros said: “I bet his wife bought him off and now held him as her slave.”

“I bet not”, Pallas said and handing Nikandros the card over. He was smiling.

Nikandros looked at it: “Lyra. Market Michigan.”

“We have a hint!” Pallas said proudly: “Let’s go to the precinct. We should check it and tell the others.”


	6. The missing girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for this chapter!  
\- Description of sexual abuse on a child. (It's not that graphic but it's there.)

„Yani’s tip actually brought us something“, announced Pallas and pinned a missing flyer to the wall: „I found a missing girl, Katie Dott, her family is still looking for her. She could by Lyra.”

“She brought it from the victim to the intermediary?” asked Damen in disbelief and stood up a little more upright.

“I guess she’ll do anything to make Govart happy”, Nikandros said frivolously.

“Ancel’s still here, isn’t he? Bring him here”, Jord said, addressed to Damen who nodded and went off to bring the boy to them.

“I took Katie’s picture and I used an aging software to edit it and this came out.” Pallas went over to the laptop and showed his result from the software: “I then entered the new image into every database I came up with, and those are the possibilities that came out of it.”

Five pictures of five different women appeared on the beamer.

“What’s the matter?” Ancel asked meekly when he came back with Damen. Laurent had turned to him and gently touched his shoulder to push Ancel forward: “We would like you to look at some photos. Do you recognize any of these girls?”

Ancel was meanwhile in front of the beamer and Pallas looked at him anxiously, Laurent had put his hands on the boy’s narrow shoulders in a calming manner.

“Yes”, Ancel said immediately and nodded to one of the photos: “That’s her. This is Lyra.”

“This one?” asked Pallas and pointed at the photo of a girl with bright red wavy hair and a grey strand in the front.

“Yes, she is it. The hair color is now a different one but that’s Lyra”, Ancel told them.

“Okay, great, that was a big help for us Ancel”, Laurent said and gently pushed him away from the pictures and accompanied him back to the meeting room: “You can tell your parents that we’re making progress.”

“There’s a vehicle registered to her”, Pallas said. “A Jersey license plate registered to Lyra Thompson.”

“Enter the license plate number into the vehicle database, you must find her immediately”, Jord ordered and then went back to his office.

“How’s this supposed to go? If we bring her here, we’ll scare Govart away”, Damen said, indecisively about how to proceed now.

“We’ll make her our Trojan horse. We’re scaring her a little so she’ll lead us to Govart and Nicaise”, Laurent explained, slowly moving back towards his desk. Damen followed him sighing.

*

“How long have you not rested?” Damen asked when Laurent was about take his jacket off his chair: “Please?”

“You heard me, Laurent. You look exhausted, lie down a bit. Nik and I take care of Katie”, offered Damen and watched his boyfriend’s facial expressions closely.

He blinked a few times and then shook his head: “No Damen, that’s not possible right now. I can rest when the case is closed but not now. You’re also gonna need me if we can catch Katie.”

Damen gasped: “What is that supposed to mean? That I’m not sensitive enough to talk to victims and perpetrators at the same time?”

Laurent had to grin and walked towards Damen, pulled his shirt collar slightly before he leaned in and gave him a short kiss on the lips.

“All I’m saying is that you might need me to get you down again. I know this case is too much for you too, but you’re just to proud to admit it in front of me.”

“Sometimes I hate your ability to read people so well”, Damen replied smiling.

“You’re grateful for that, because it saved your ass so many times.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“And therefore, you are a open book to me.” Laurent smiled gently and took Damens hand in his, stroked it with soft pressure: “When this case is over, can we take one or two days off? I… would need it.”

Damens gaze soften and he nodded: “We can, yes, maybe I can ask Jokaste if we can take Theo for those days to us?”

Laurent smiled: “This would be wonderful. I miss your nephew.”

“I know that he misses you too.”

Damen gave Laurent a tender kiss on the cheek: “So than? Let us go, the sooner we get closer to the matter of the whole case the sooner we can solve it.”

“You’re right.”

*

“That must be her, right?” Damen said and turned in the direction that a young girl came towards them.

“Katie Dott?” called Laurent over to her and the girl stopped abruptly, looked at the two detectives with a defensive look before Laurent asked: “Do you have a moment for us?”

“Actually, no”, the girl let out with a small huff.

“You carry bags from a teenage brand with you? Are the clothes in it for you?” Damen pointed out and looked at the girl with his eyebrow raised.

“Well, what do you want from me?”

“Do you know this boy here?” He disappeared from a hotel on a school trip”, Laurent explained to her, holding out a photo of Nicaise.

“What does he have to do with me?” Katie asked, visibly confused and looked back and forth between the two investigators; she had paid little attention to the picture.

“You talked to him, we could see that from the pictures of the surveillance cameras”, Damen helped her to the jumps.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people”, Katie snatched.

“Look, we need your help with the search. The boy’s best friend doesn’t know anything anymore. Did you happen to see him go with someone or something?” Laurent continued to ask quietly and the girl tilted her head, smiled at him sweet as sugar and said: “I’m sorry.” Then she turned around and was about to leave.

Laurent gave Damen an annoyed look and went after Katie. “Well, listen, if you think of anything that might help us. Here’s my card, call me if you have something, would you?”

Katie stands still and silently took his card from Laurent’s slender fingers with an annoyed expression.

“Le’ts make this easy for ourselves”, Damen suggested: “Call Detective deVere right away so we can get your number.”

Katie frowned and looked at Damen confused about this statement. “The missing boy is from outside, we have to do it by the book”, Damen told her, smiling.

Katie twisted her eyes and seemed to give in; she took out her mobile phone and typed in Laurent’s number to call him.

Laurent was amazed that Damen had actually made her believe this.

*

Nikandros and Pallas sat with Rochert in the office waiting for the wiretap when Lazar enteredr the room.

“You got the wiretap privileges so fast? How?” Pallas asked irritated and stood up, went over to him.

Lazar shrugged casually with his shoulders and said: “I am just fast and good in such things. Are we on it yet?”

Rochert nodded and turned on the loudspeaker from which the voice of Katie aka Lyra sounded.

“Govart? Govart!”

“Is something wrong?”

“I’m … uhm… just stuck in a traffic jam, why don’t you take the dog to the vet?”

“The south coast of Stanton Island” Pallas commented on the red to they had located and which also just disappeared. “That’s it. They both hung up.”

“Akielos and deVere must not lose Lyra, because only she can lead us to Govart”, Lazar said and looked at Pallas.

“I’ll let these two know they can’t lose their trail on her.”

“Good.”

*

Damen and Laurent had driven a good deistance behind Katie when she entered a driveway and stopped the Car. Damen slowed down behind here and the two detectives got out of their car and ran over to Katie, who was about to fly into the house.

“Police! Stop!” Laurent yelled at he and intercepted her way. He grabbed her arms and bent them behind her back, led her against the car and handcuffed her: “Katie Dott, you’re under arrest!”

He palpated her body and found the keys to the house, and then he threw these at Damen, so he could get in to get Nicaise. Hopefully.

*

“Don’t worry Nicaise”, said Govart to him and prepared the camera on a tripod, and then he went back over to Nicaise and put his hand on his cheek and said: “Nothing’s going to happen to you, you are safe with me, yeah? They won’t catch you.”

Nicaise sighed heavy and turned his head away from Govart, he tensed visibly, which Govart didn’t absorb well. He grabbed his neck and forced Nicaise to look at him: “You’re safe with me, all right?”

Nicaise looked up at him with big blue eyes and nodded frightened.

“Good.”

Govart smiled and stroked his cheekbone with his thumb. Nicaise pressed his lips together to a thin line as Govart leaned down to him and kissed him rough. The boy was about to back away from him but Govart held him by his waist in place. “Come on, don’t act like that, you like it too. You even moaned satisfied the last time!”

Nicaise held back his tears. He couldn’t cry right now. He knew this. But he wanted to.

“Be a good boy and come here.” Govart said and opened his belt, then the button of his pants. “Your dirty little mouth need something to do again, eh?”

Nicaise shook his head violently. “Please, not again.”

Govart sighed. “Well then.” He placed himself on the bed too and reached between Nicaise legs, pressed against his crotch and then forced his thighs apart violently.

“No please no!” Nicaise cried out as Govart turned him on his stomach and pushed him down onto the mattress.

“You know that is what happened when you don’t listen to me”, Govart said harsh and pressed his head down. Nicaise cried and looked at the camera. He noticed that light blinked red.

Govart was recording this.

*

Damen had meanwhile entered the house and followed the stairs down, turned on the lights and looked around in the basement. He had pulled out his gun and followed the small corridor; he found a laundry room and room whose door was closed. Damen lifted his gun and pushed the door open slightly with his feet before he went in to look what might be behind the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Thanks for all the kudos so far. <3  
See ya next chapter again. :)


	7. The broken girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same warning as the chapter before. Be careful with the Trigger-Warnings.

The room was windowless, equipped with a bed that looked used and countless toys scattered around the room.

“Nicaise?” Damen asked loud: “Nicaise?!”

He took the blanket aside and looked around every corner of the room for Nicaise.

But the room was empty and there was no sign of Nicaise.

Damen stepped out of the room and looked around the corridor again, next to him he noticed a curtain that he pulled aside and came into a room that looked like a garage. The neon tube provided white bright light and the room made Damen somehow uncomfortable, he came closer and discovered a desk with a computer on it.

He turned around and saw Laurent come up to him and look at him questioningly as he entered the room.

“We’re too late”, Damen sighed: “They’re gone.” His voice sounded bitter and he put his gun back into the holster of his belt.

Laurent drove himself stressed through his hair and cast out a quiet curse: “This can’t be happening!”

The two investigators turned around when a voice rang out behind them: “Caution Detecitve.”

Laurent and Damen drove around in shock, both having drawn their guns and looking around alarmed.

Damen went a little closer to the middle of the room and saw the computer screen go on, on the screen in the lower corn was his own picture to see and on the big screen appeared a picture of Govart who was about to close his belt, sitting casually on the edge of the bed next to Nicaise.

“Live-Transmission”, he briefly explained to the detective.

Damens eyes grew big and his body tensed with a rage that overcame him of all sudden. How he’d love to just reach through the screen and strangle Govart. He studied the picture more closely and saw that Nicaise was sitting in his background, his shirt was slipped and his eyes reddened, dark spots had formed on his thighs and he had a bite wound on his neck. The boy seemed broken to Damen. He gritted his teeth together, his lips twisted into a thin line. That monster!

“Go ahead, ask me what you want”, Govart said and leaned up, put his elbows on his knees.

“He can’t see me”, Laurent whispered from the side, outside the screen: “Talk to him, I’m going out to the others.”

Damen couldn’t nod or do anything in Laurent’s direction because it would attract Govart’s attention. Laurent left the room without an answer and left Damen alone with this disgusting human.

“Where are you?” Damen asked classic and Govart made a mocking sound: “I’m glad you have a sense of humor.”

“Listen, we just want the boy. Are you all right Nicaise?” Damen found his question ridiculous, because obviously Nicaise was not all right and he wished he could help the boy somehow.

He looked so scared to him and it reminded him a lot of Laurent back then.

Govart grinned dirty at the question and put one arm around Nicaise, pulled the scared boy to himself and said: “Go on, answer him how you’re doing here.” His tone had something about it that Damen didn’t like.

“Yeah, I’m fine”, Nicaise obviously lied and avoided the gaze with the camera.

“I didn’t do anything to you, right?”

“Exactly. He didn’t hurt me.”

For Damen, the words seemed rehearsed and he was sick at the sight that obviously something happened to Nicaise and Govart hurt him for sure. He blinked a few times and nodded slowly.

*

“Did we miss her?” asked Nikandros as he approached Laurent who had just left the house and came down the stairs.

“Or they were never here”, he explained: “This is probably a deceptive maneuver; Govart makes a live transmission with Nicaise. We don’t know from where. Damen talk to these two.”

“They can be anywhere in the world”, Pallas said downheartedly.

“But maybe not, all the other victims have a relationship with Lyra. She is valuable to him, he wants her close to him”, Laurent said.

“I’ll call the tech, maybe they can trace the transmission”, Nikandros said and took out his phone before turning away from the other two.

“Do you think we can get Lyra… Katie… talks to us?” Pallas asked.

“It won’t be easy after all these years, I mean she’s fixated on Govart”, Laurent said honestly and breathed in deeply.

“I hope there’s still some of Katie left in her”, Pallas said, shaking his head slightly.

*

“I’m sorry”, Laurent said gently and unlocked Katies handcuffs, with which she was chained to the bedpost in the house.

“Do you really want to take off the handcuffs?” she asked snappishly.

“They’ve been hurt enough”, Laurent told her and put the handcuffs in his jacket pocket.

“From whom? Govart?” She smiled bitterly and took off the sleeve of her jacket and threw it on the bed: “Is that how you think it was? He didn’t hurt me. He saved me.” Katies tone was sharp and dangerous.

“The way he’s saving Nicaise now?” Pallas asked, looked around the room in disgust and was now looking skeptically at Lyra.

“Yes. He’s much better off here”, Katie confirmed.

“Here in this room where he held you captive? Raping you?” Pallas’ tone had and incredulously angry undertone and Laurent directed him with a glance to calm down.

Katie narrowed her eyes and shook her head: “It wasn’t like that. He never did this.”

“And to Nicaise?” Pallas asked.

Katie was stubbornly silent at this.

“We saw the videos, Katie”, Laurent said it soft and sat next to her: “You were just a little girl.”

“My name is Lyra”, she replied harshly, looking at him dangerously.

“He made you do it. You and all the other girls and boys.”

“He was just trying to save them too”, she fended off.

Laurent smiled sadly: “Did you know that Reece died of an overdose? He started again when he met you.” He stood up again and stood next to Pallas now.

“No one had missed these girls and boys. Nobody ever looked for them”, Katie said with a slight sadness in her sharp voice.

“But Nicaise has people looking for him and missing him”, explained Pallas as calmly as he could.

“They will forget him”, Katie said mockingly.

“They haven’t left the station all night. They are desperate, just like your family back then”, Laurent said to her and Katie had to laugh: “My family? They didn’t even report me missing!”

“Who told you that?” Pallas asked with a frown.

“Govart. Who else?” was the simple answer from her.

Laurent and Pallas took a look at each other and Katie said: “He said nobody was interested in me. No one loves but him and showed me this.”

Her gaze was visibly hurt and sad as she said that but somehow warm as she said the last sentence. Laurent felt pity for her in a strange way.

“We have the missing flyers that your parents had printed back then”, he told her and looked at her insistently but Katie only twisted her eyes. “You’re lying.”

“Katie, that’s how we found you”, he explained and knelt in front of her, throwing Pallas a little sideway glance to which he nodded understanding and quietly left the room.

“Govart bought me clothes. Govart fed me and when I got too old… he didn’t send me back to the street”, Katie said warmly.

Laurent felt a sharp pain in his chest with these words. He knew that sound of those words to well. His uncle used them a lot in front of him. He was too young to understand the meaning behind them and how his uncle was using him all the years after he got “too old” for his uses.

He closed his eyes briefly and gathered as he looked up again to Katie.

“Last year we even took a cruise together”, she said proudly.

“You’re not seeing this right. Your family never stopped looking for you”, he said and added: “I understand that you’re hurt and that he made you feel good but they always use such words to hold their victims with them.”

Katie looked at him carefully, her eyes studied his face, and her brain seemed to connect the words and his facial expression and tried to tell if he was lying to her with those words.

“Not a minute. He is just using you. He broke you with this.”

Katie was a little afraid of his information. She obviously didn’t seem to believe him but her look revealed that she seemed to trust him.

“Why did you say it like this? You said it, like you knew this feeling?” Katie asked him.

Laurent looked at her honestly: “I experienced this myself.”

*

“You frighten my boy”, Govart said and stood up, walking closer to the camera and looking directly at Damen.

“I don’t want that at all, okay? I just want him to be safe”, Damen said calmly and put his gun back into his holster again.

“Safety? Why do you think I saved him? He’s thirteen and going to a student-society party in New York City”, Govart shouted upset and gesticulated with his hands.

“Yeah, I heard about that”, Damen said nodding.

“What are these parents and teachers who leave their children’s so unattended?” Govart continued angrily.

“And you’re right about that. If it weren’t for you, who know what, would have happened to him?” Damen hurt himself to say these words, because he visibly saw what was happening to him here and it made Damen angry but he tried to stay calm. For Nicaise’s safety.  
“I see, you’re making fun of me”, Govart said with a dry laugh: “Maybe I should turn off the live transmission and continue with Nicaise where I left off?”

“No No No. I don’t hthink it’s a good idea”, Damen promptly said, dangerously narrowing his eyes.

“Oh? You want to watch? Believe me, I’m very gentle with Nicaise. More gently than the viewers in the live-streams on the wish evening, you should read what these sick bastards wish for”, Govart laughed and put one hand on Nicaise’s thigh, letting it slide between them. “I, on the other hand, am gentle, aren’t I?”

Nicaise nodded carefully: “He’s very gentle, yes.”

Damen pulse was racing. He closed his eyes for a moment and breathed deeply before saying: “Okay. That’s good. Honestly man, that’s great of you.”

He could have thrown up on his own words but it helped to keep Govart in the live-transmission.

“Look, there’s nothing wrong with that”, he said smiling and pulled Nicaise back into a kiss, letting his hand slide deeper between the boy’s legs.

Damen bit his lower lip and literally forced himself to look. All just so Govart wouldn’t shut down the transmission.

“Come Nicaise, let’s give the detective a little special show from you, you were so good earlier”, Govart said with a deep aroused voice.

Damen, in this moment, was glad that Laurent had left the room.


	8. Alone and bruised

„I can imagine what that must have been like. How terrible it must have been to be so alone and never know what would come”, Laurent said gently and understandingly. He had meanwhile sat down next to Katie, who avoided eye contact with him.

“I knew he’d keep coming back”, she said.

“And what did he do, Katie? Let you perform in front of the camera and let you fulfill the wishes of the viewers”, Laurent continued unflinchingly. The words hurt him. He knew exactly how she feels.

Katie shook her head a little and pulled her lips: “You get used to it. You know this; you said you experienced the same. Why keep asking this.”

Laurent swallowed: “Because everyone is different in those things. I don’t want to hurt you more than necessary.”

Katie scoffed and playing at the end of her bracelet. She clearly doesn’t want to continue this talk. Laurent would be fine with this.

“Katie?” said Pallas as he came back into the room, holding a tablet in his hand and Laurent looked up to him.

Katie made a frustrated growl: “Don’t call me like that!”

Pallas didn’t even respond, he handed her the tablet and simply said: “Someone wants to talk to you.”

Katie accepted the tablet confused and looked into the screen, it was a video chat and on the screen was her mother, and she was crying and barely got her name out.

“Mom?” Katie asked.

“They never stopped looking for you”, Laurent said emphatically.

“It’s all good. Everything will be all right now”, Katies mother said fragile: “Just come back to us, please.”

“It is really you”, a second voice rang out and another young woman appeared on the screen.

Katie sobbed smiling.

“Look, they answered immediately”, Pallas said to her, hands in his hips. Katie didn’t listen to him, but turned to her sister and said: “You’ve grown up.”

“And so did you”, she said laughing when a baby was heard in the background: “That’s your niece. I called her Katlyn.”

Katie looked up and turned down the screen of the tablet, she blinked her tears away.

“Katie, it’s okay”, Laurent said reassuringly and took her hands, turning the screen back to face her: “Talk to them.”

Katie looked at Laurent uncertainly and then turned back to the screen: “Where… Where’s Dad?”

Her mother and sister looked at her sadly, and then her mother explained: “He didn’t survive all of this. It was hard for him. For all of us. He went there every time they found anything. It was too much for him.”

Katie suppressed a deep sob, her lips trembled.

“Katie, Nicaise’s best friend and his parents want him back the way your family wants you back”, Laurent said smiled encouragingly at her and hoped Kathie would do the right thing now. Only she can help them now to make the last steps to Nicaise.

*

“She doesn’t know the address?” Nikandros asked in disbelief.

“No. Govart was clever and took no risks”, Pallas frivolously explained to him: “He blindfolded Katie every time. But she said it was a house without stairs at the entrance and the road had made a bend.”

Nikandros laughed bitterly and saw in the area around at whose street with the second bent they were already walking along: “And let me guess, the house was white?”  
Pallas twisted his eyes: “Witty. I know every house here is white, her tip isn’t the best, yes, but it’s better than nothing.”

“I know I know”, said Nikandros defensively: “We’ll find Nicaise safe. I bet.”

*

“Govart! You really don’t have to do this, okay? Let’s just… talk normally with each other. Man to man”, Damen energetically suggested, before Govart could continue to put his dirty hands further on Nicaise’s body and hurt the boy even more.  
Govart laughed mockingly: “Tsk, how about I turn this thing off now? Detective, it was nice talking to you but as you know, you should end when it’s getting good.”

Damen narrowed his eyes dangerously and growled: “I don’t think that this is a good move, Govart. Let it be. You don’t end this.”

Govart grinned at him: “So you want to watch?” He pressed his hand into Nicaise’s crotch and the Boy flinched uncomfortable with a light sound.

Damen thought. The best thing was to say “Yes I watch” and tries not to throw up during this, just to hold him online. But a big part in Damen was clearly against this.

“Hm, Nicaise what do you think? Should we continue while the Detective watches us?” he purred into the ear of the Boy.

He looked helpless into the camera and Damen could feel his heart burst into thousand little pieces.

“Please. Don’t do this”, Damen begged nearly to him.

Govart raised an eyebrow: “Your begging like Nicaise.” He laughed amused about this and pushed Nicaise half-hearted down into the mattress, while he leaned over him between the small legs. Damen could see his arousal in his pants and he was disgusted by this. How could a grown man be turned on by a small crying boy who was obviously in fear? He didn’t get it and he didn’t want to know this.

Govart leaned over Nicaises neck and licked his throat, kissed it and left bruises and bitemarks on his pale skin. Damen could see this clearly. He bit down his lower lip angry and his hand turns into a fist.

“Come. Moan for me Nicaise, this is your sweet-spot, isn’t it? You moaned the last time like a dirty little slut”, Govart said with a rough aroused voice.

Damen looked away from the screen. He punched the wall next to him.

He was angry.

Angry at the situation.

Angry about himself.

Angry about the fact that he didn’t can do anything about it.

He heard Nicaise quietly moaning and than a slap.  
“You can do better than this!”

Nicaise cried out.

Damen closed his eyes.

He was in a twist with himself. Then he heard something other from the Screen. Something… that was a good sign.

*

“Police! Don’t move. I want to see your hands”, Pallas shouted behind the armed police man who had kicked in the door.

“Get away from the boy and Hands up!” Nikandros shouted angry at Govart.

Govart retired from Nicaise immediately. Nicaise lay on the bed crying.

Nikandros took care of Govart, roughly he grabbing the man by the shoulders and pulling him up from the bed, he bend his arms behind his back and handcuffing him: “You are hereby arrested for abduction, severe deprivation of liberty and sexual abuse of an underage! And you are glad that I am a good police officer, otherwise I would punch you right now into you dirty face and break your fingers!” Nikandros shouted and pushed the man in front of him to walk him out of the room, followed by two other police men.

Pallas took his gun away and carefully stepped to the bed where Nicaise was lying and cried heartbroken.

His face was wet and reddens, his neck was covered in bruises and his shirt was slightly unbuttoned while his pants were pushed down a little.

“Hey kid, it’s going to be all right again, yes? Govart won’t be able to hurt you anymore.”

Nicaise nodded ponderously and gave into his tears once more. The boy’s body trembled and his sobbing was heartbreaking. Pallas sat down next to him and carefully helped him up into a sitting position and dressed him again. He gave him his jacket and before he picked him up and carry him outside to the car, so they can drive to the department.

*

“Nicaise! Oh God”, Ancel cried out when Nicaise arrived with Pallas, Nikandros, Damen and Laurent. He ran towards the smaller boy and took him into his arms, sobbing: “I am so damn sorry. Oh my God. Nicaise.”

The other boy said nothing; he just put his arms around the body of his best friend and gave himself up to the embrace. Ancel’s parents had gone to the two boys and smiled happy that Nicaise was back.

“Thank you. Thank you so much for your work”, Ancel’s mother said with a smile and Jord returned her look warm, nodding towards her as an answer.

*

“You’ve done very well, guys”, Jord said with a smile.

“Thank you Captain”, Nikandros replied and took his jacket off his chair.

“But I have to give you some more information for the next days”, Jord continued and Nikandros put the jacket back again.

Laurent looked confused at his captain and also Damen raised an eyebrow, while Pallas lowered his keys again.

“The case isn’t finished yet. I was able to find out something about Nicaise”, Jord began to explain to his team: “I found his parents and also something odd about it.”

“What did you find?” Laurent asked, sat down on his chair by his desk. Damen leaned with his hips against it and looked curious at Jord.

“His parents are Thomas and Myrene Robinson”, Jord said.

“Aren’t they in prison since twelve years?” Nikandros asked confused.

“Yes exactly. They are the parents of him. Akielos, deVere, do you remember the one year old boy you found in the hotel room as we hunted them down for their child porns and abduction of those child’s?”

Laurent nodded slowly and Damen eyes grew big.

“I think somehow this case and the new case are connected. My feeling tells me this was all set up somehow. Govart wasn’t alone with this”, Jord told them his theory about this.

“Captain. I see your point and let me tell you, that you are right about this. Those cases are like Snake pits. If you find one, you can be sure that there is more”, Laurent said in a cold calculated voice, he has his typical look on his face where he tries to connect things, looking for something he had missed during the case and he was thinking about a decision.

“deVere, you and Akielos will take a day off tomorrow, you understand me? Official order”, Jord interjected directly and Laurent clenched his jaw tight. Damen put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it comforting, in the meaning that they will take care of this without them tomorrow.

Laurent doesn’t seem happy about this but he nodded: “Yes Captain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not over yet. ;)  
You can tell - it all just began right now.


	9. In the night

Pallas sneaked quietly into the apartment, the lights were out everywhere and he put his keys in the bowl on the cupboard next to the entrance before stripping his shoes and taking off his jacket.

“Pallas?” Lazar’s quietly sleepy voice came out of the bedroom. Pallas had to smile and went into the room on quiet soles. “Hey did I wake you?”

“No I haven’t really been able to sleep yet”, Lazar admitted and smiled at him tiredly: “What time is it?”

“After 11 pm”, he replied and went over to his closet to get out a pair of jogging pants and a T-Shirt: “Try to sleep, Lazar, you have to get up early tomorrow.”

“I don’t have to be at the office till 12 am”, he replied and rubbed his eyes.

“Then you should sleep anyway, right? I’ll be in bed soon too”, Pallas said with a smile and went into the bathroom to change and brush his teeth. He came back again and crawled under the blanket to Lazar, who pulled him straight into a warm tired embrace.

“Why you’re so cool?” Lazar grumbled quietly.

Pallas: “Because it’s fucking cold outside my dear.”

Lazar hummed something and cuddled himself closer to Pallas body, as if he wanted to transfer his own body heat to him. Pallas stroked through his dark blond hair and smiled warmly. He was happy to be home with him again and able to relax, the last hours of this case had been exhausting and had visibly pulled on his nerves, which Lazar notice.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked sleepily and Pallas feared he’d fall asleep in a few minutes.

“The case”, he said anyway: “We found Nicaise but… It was hard hours and the case is still not quite finished. The Captain has found a void that has made him somehow suspicious.”  
Lazar nodded understandingly: “Does that mean you have to go to the precinct tomorrow and deal with it?”

“Exactly. You’re preparing the trials for Govart and Katie, aren’t you?”

“Yes, somehow I feel sorry for Katie, she was actually just a victim, but she was complicit.”

“I know. It’s really hard.” Pallas sighed heavily and closed his eyes briefly: “You know; when Nik and I came into this room… There Govart has… he has….” He swallowed hard and held back his tears: “I hope Nicaise gets a chance to be a kid again.”

Lazar lifted himself up a little, leaned on his forearm and looked at Pallas compassionately, gently stroking his hand and then interlacing their fingers.

“You got him out of there and you were there for him, he wasn’t alone anymore, that’s the important thing. And Govart will get his just punishment, trust me.”

Pallas nodded and wrapped his free arm around Lazar’s neck, drew him closer to himself and sought the comfort he needed.

“It was terrible to see the boy so, he was so broken and he cried. I don’t understand how people can do this to someone”, sobbed Pallas and buried his face in the crook of Lazar’s neck, which tried to comfort him.

“Hey, I know how hard this is and how you feel, but don’t let it get too close to you.”

“I’m trying.”

“Good.”

Lazar stroked Pallas’ sided he felt him slowly relax under the soft touch and his sobbing became quieter. He broke away from Lazar and rubbed the tears out of his eyes, before he laughed embarrassingly: “Sorry. That’s been a bit too much the last few days, I guess.”

“That’s okay, especially since you’re still a little fresh in the department.”

Lazar smiled encouragingly at him and gave him a little tender kiss on the lips, which was reciprocated by Pallas, and then he lay next to him again and pulled him back into a tight warm embrace.

“You should try to sleep now, too”, Lazar whispered to his temple and kissed it.

Pallas laughed quietly and nodded: “Sleep well.”

“You too. I’ll make us breakfast tomorrow, okay?”

“You don’t have to get up so early because of me, I have to go to the office at 8 am.”  
“But I want to.”

Pallas smiled lovingly: “God. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

*

Nikandros arrived at his home and carelessly threw the keys on the table; he got rid of his jacket and shoes and went straight to the bathroom. He turned on the faucet and formed a bowl with his hand, let the pleasantly cool water run in and sprayed it into his face. He rubbed his hands over his face and neck before turning off the tap and grabbing his towel to dry himself.

The last days and especially the last hours had been exhausting and unpleasant and had left a very negative feeling in Nikandros.

He knew what he was getting into when he was transferred to SVU ten years ago but somehow cases involved the children were always particularly hard on him.

And this one had it in him with the last information especially. Nicaise had somehow a chance to have a normal life in a somehow healthy environment and then something like that happened to him.

Nikandros shook his and went into his bedroom, changed into his sleeping clothes and threw himself on his bed. He pulled the blanket over him and switched off the light next to his bed. He really hoped that he was able to fall asleep after what he had seen today, without nightmares haunting him directly.

In such moments he wished for a partner somewhere that could give him comfort, but he knew perfectly well that a relationship in the profession with an outsider was almost impossible. The job was stressful with his cases and he wouldn’t want to do that to anyone for long, so he preferred to stay alone, which was probably better.

Nikandros closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

He got sick of the thought that he would have to deal with people who had made Nicaise’s life difficult tomorrow and had to write a report about the development of this case. He just wanted to forget all and never have to think about it again.

He had experienced many thing in his ten years, he had worked on cases that were worse than this one and which did not end so happily.

A happy ending. He really wondered if Nicaise was even able to continue a normal childhood after this experience and would ever build a normal relationship with people.

He just felt sorry for the boy. He hoped so much that Govart would get his punishment for this and that they would get more out of the case to closed down the wire-puller and the potential other perpetrators of this snake pit, as Laurent called it.

There should not be more children suffering and just because Govart and Katie were now caught did not mean that these cases would stop immediately.

*

Laurent hadn’t said anything the whole trip home; he had looked out of the window again and again and stroked his wrist lost in thought.

Damen had been driving and had been silent, let the music run quietly in the background. Laurent was grateful. He didn’t want to talk about the case and its implications. Not now, not after what Jord had told them. His brain has been working at high speed ever since and he tried to understand the puzzle they were about to put together. The case was from over, he was sure of it. The case had only just begun. Nicaise had been only the sixth victim of Govart, the last victim of Govart but where he was there are more. He could well imagine that there was a mastermind and that there would be several perpetrators. It won’t be the last case of its kind, Laurent was sure of it. Very sure even and they had to quickly find out who was behind it. He could definitely understand Jord’s point, he was sure after the story with his parents that Nicaise was not just a random victim. It was planned. All of it. And Laurent had the bad feeling that there was way more behind all of it.

Damen and he had gone up the stairs to their apartment as they arrived and Laurent headed straigt for the bed. Damen followed him quick. He was still silent and Laurent felt a bit sorry for the awkward silent above them.  
“Damen?”  
“Yes?”

“I’m sorry that I didn’t talk too much yet”, Laurent said. He knew he didn’t have to apologize for this but he wanted to.

“It’s Okay, I can understand this. How do you feel?”

“A bit better.” Laurent gave him a small smile.

“Glad to hear that.”

Damen rolled over to him and pull Laurent into his arms; the blond let his head rest onto his chest and lay his arm around his waist.

“Do you think Nicaise is gonna get a chance to be a kid again? Somehow? After all what happened to him?” Laurent sounded insecure about his own words. He knew Nicaise would have a hard time after this and he hoped that he would make it through it.

“I’m sure of it”, Damen was as optimistic as ever. “I mean, you made it too. And he seems like a strong kid to me. Also he got Ancel by his side and his parents.”

Laurent smiled against Damens chest: “You’re right.”

But somehow his thoughts wander off this optimistic trail. He had to over think all of this and then talk to Damen about it in a few days, when everything was clear in his own mind again.

“Is anything other on your mind?” Damen asked gently, stroking of his underarm over the light scars on the pale skin.

“Yes.” Laurent said truly to him and looked up: “I am glad, that I am not alone after this and that I have you, so I don’t have to deal with shit like this alone by myself.”

Damens gaze softened and he kissed his forehead. “I will always be with you.”

“I know. Thanks for that. Really.”

“But, we should get some sleep. Especially you, you desperately need sleep”, Damen said grinning at him and Laurent rolled his eyes and said amused:” Okay honey.”

“Tomorrow I’ll call Jokaste as promised”, Damen murmured and Laurent nodded in agreement: “That would be wonderful. I think this is what I need tomorrow, you and Theo together, here in our apartment with no case and no work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoped you like it so far. :3   
Now I will focus a bit more on the characterizing after the case.


	10. Time off

„Thank you for taking care of Theo today“, sounded the soft sounding voice of Jokaste at the other end of the line.

Damen smiled warmly: “Not for that. Laurent is looking forward to seeing the little one again.”

“I’m glad to hear that, Theo is always excited to see him again”, she said with a light chuckle in her voice: “You can pick him up from school at one pm.”

“We’ll be there. You can pick up Theop again tonight, Laurent and I have to get back to our shift tomorrow morning.”

“Okay, I’ll write you before I come to you.”

“Good. See you later Jokaste.”

“See you Damianos.”

That ended the telephone conversation and Damen turned to Lauren, who had just come out of the bedroom. His blonde hair was tousled and he rubbed tiredly over his eyes, which also attracted Damen’s attention was the fact that Laurent wore one of his sweatshirts and that made Damen smile.

“Good morning sweetheart”, Damen said lovingly and Laurent sat down on his lap, leaned his head tired against his chest and Damen put his chin on his head. His arms embraced Laurent’s warm body and he stroked his wrist with his thumb.

“Morning”, Laurent mumbled quietly and snuggled closer to his boyfriend’s body.

Damen smiled and said: “I already made you coffee, but you’d have to get off me so I can get it for you.”

Laurent shook his head: “Not yet, I want to cuddle a bit longer after you just vanish out of bed.”

“Okay anything you want, sweetheart.”

Damen reinforced the grip around Laurent a little and pressed gentle kisses on his head.

“Did you at least sleep well?”

“Yes.”

“And now honestly?”

“No. I had a bad dream.”

Damen had to work long for Laurent to talk openly with him about his concerns and he still sometimes limped, especially after such difficult cases.

“Do you want to talk to me about it to process the dream?” Damen offered him gently and Laurent looked up at him and bit down on his lower lip before he says: “Later. Coffee first.”

“Well, then, let me get up.”

Laurent went down from him and sat down on the other chair; he pulled his legs up onto the seat and wrapped his arms around it. Damen gave him the cup of coffee and Laurent thankfully took it into his hands and took the first sip.

“I called Jokaste, we can pick up Theo from school at one pm”, Damen said to distract Laurent from his thoughts, he could literally feel him working on his thoughts and Damen was so glad that they could take his nephew with them today so that Laurent could get distracted from all the stress the case brought to them.

“Ah so soon already”, Laurent replied with a light smile on his lips and Damen nodded contentedly.

*

Laurent and Damen were on their way to Theo’s school, the journey was so far silent. Laurent looked out of the window of the passenger door and thought about everything from the last days and especially about how Nicaise would be doing now.

He was sure that with appropriate care and therapy he would get over it halfway well. He had seen it in his deep blue eyes; he was a strong boy and yet… Laurent had also believed earlier that he was strong and could do it on his own but somehow. His gaze fell on his wrists, which were hidden under the sleeves of his jacket and full with smaller scars that he had added himself.

He wrapped his right hand around his left wrist in reflex and squeezed a little do dispel the thoughts about it. He knew that Damen would notice this but he also knew that he wouldn’t immediately ask out of concern but gave him time and for that he was more than grateful for him.

He sometimes asked himself how he had earned such a man as Damen.

Laurent looked over at his boyfriend and smiled warmly. Damen looked straight at the road and drove the car. Somehow he reminded him back to their first dates as a teenager, where Damen picked him up and drove with him to their destinations, especially because he was wearing a black hoodie, an open grey jacket and old jeans, he looked so young with those clothes on. Laurent smiled and then turned his gaze away again, looking back through the window of the passenger door when they finally arrived at the parking lot on Theo’s school.

Laurent unbuckled himself and got out while Damen was waiting in the car. The blonde walked towards the door of the school, where Theo ran into him excitedly and hugged him.

“Mom already said that you and Damen will pick me up today”, he said joyfully and Laurent hugged the kid back, before he said: “That’s right; we’ll spend the day together.”

“That’s so cool! I love being with you and couldn’t wait to see you again, but school is so annoying so I don’t have much time to visit you afterwards”, Theo explained sadly and Laurent stroked him through light hair. “That’s fine, we were also buys but now we have time together.”

Theo grinned at him and nodded. Laurent noticed that he was missing two teeth and he asked: “How did you lose them?”

“One at sports and the other at reading”, said Theo proudly.

“At reading?”

“Yes! I played with my bookmark and had it in my mouth, the tooth was shaky and then fell out”, he explained shrugging his shoulders. “Dad gave me a highfive for this. Mom was not that amused about this.”

Laurent laughed: “That sounds a bit like the story Damen told me back then, he had also lost a tooth like that and his mom wasn’t that amused about it either.”

“Really?”

“Yes. You can ask him”, Laurent said smilingly.

Theo beamed happily at him and got into the car when they made their way back; Laurent held the door open for him and closed it behind Theo, then he sat down next to Damen again.

“Laurent told me you lost a teeth because of a bookmark”, Theo said as he fastened his seat belt.

“Did he?” Damen asked and looked over the rear-view mirror at his nephew as he started the engine and drove off.

Laurent tried to hide his grin behind his hand.

“Yes!” Theo echoed laughing and Damen shot Laurent a soft gaze with a crooked grin.

“Maybe I did this, yes.”

“Cool. Me too, I lost a tooth yesterday. Dad also gave me a highfive for this!”

“He did?” Damen sounded surprised.  
“Yes, but Mom wasn’t that amused.”

“I believe that.”

Damen smiled warmly and Laurent chuckled, while Theo began to talk about his day at school.

*

On the way back the three had taken something to eat with them. Damen had unlocked the apartment door and Theo had run forward into it like an excited puppy.

“Hey, not so fast. First take off your shoes”, Laurent shouted after him and Damen shook his head with a grin. Theo had trotted back like a hit dog and took off his shoes, he put down his schoolbag and took off his jacket too, and then he ran back into the apartment and jumped on the sofa.

“I love your sofa, it’s so much more comfortable than what we have at home”, Theo said joyfully and stretched out.

“Maybe you’d like to ask your mom if you could wish for a new sofa for Christmas?” Damen suggested, grinning broadly and got a gentle push against the ribs.

“Don’t put such ideas into the kids head”, Laurent hissed and carried the food into the kitchen, he put the bags on the table and put out the dishes they needed, then he whistled to Theo, who reacted and came into the kitchen with Damen.

“Like two dogs. I trained you well”, Laurent said with a proud grin and Damen twisted his eyes, gave Laurent a little kiss on the lips and then sat down. It was nice to see Laurent blossoming again, he had seen in the car on the way to the school where his thoughts had drifted off and he was going to talk to him tonight about that. He cared a lot about Laurent and his well-being.

*

Damen was responsible for washing the dishes this time, which he did, while Laurent did the homework together with Theo. He heard the two of them talking to each other from the living room and smiled. Laurent was so good with children, he loved to see him deal with them but he knew very well that a child wouldn’t work in the long run with their work. He sighed heavily and put the plate away before taking the next one. He wished everything could be organized but that would otherwise be too easy for a normal life.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Laurent asked him and ripped him out of his thoughts. The blonde had sneaked behind him and put his arms around his hip; he pressed a gentle kiss on his shoulder blade and then looked up at him.

“About you”, Damen replied with a grin and Laurent twisted his eyes: “You always do, I get the feeling.”

“That’s right; most of my thoughts are about you.”

“You’re such a hopeless romantic”, Laurent gently hit him on the hip and then said: “But that’s why I fell in love with you.”

“You’re cute.”

“I’m not.”  
“Oh yes and how!”

Damen stroked his finger over the bridge of his nose, leaving behind a trace of detergent foam. Laurent laughed heartily and Damen grinned at him, then he leaned down to him and gently kissed him. Laurent kissed back tenderly.

“Can we talk later?” Damen asked whispering against his lips and he could feel Laurent tense a little but then he nodded: “Sure. But don’t worry too much about me. I’m fine. I have you.”

Damen smiled: “I love you.”

“I love you too”, Laurent said smiling and went back to the living room where Theo was sitting and doing his math homework.

*

The rest of the day was packed with watching TV and playing Wii until Jokaste came to pick up Theo.  
“Thanks again”, she said smiling.

“Not for that, we love having Theo here”, Damen said smiling and Laurent nodded approvingly as he stroked Theo’s hair as he hugged him tightly.

“It was nice with you”, said the kid with a wide smile and then said goodbye with a firm embrace to the two before he went to Jokaste and took her hand. Damen heard how Theo joyfully started to rave about Laurent and he closed the door with a warm smile.

“Come with me”, Laurent said and reached for his hand to take him into the living room, where he dropped onto the sofa with Damen. Damen landed pretty uncomfortably half on Laurent and half on the sofa. Laughing they looked at each other.  
“We are not so young anymore”, Damen said smiling and gave Laurent a kiss on the tip of his nose.

“I know it was worth a try”, Laurent replied with a grin and sat up a little, leaning with his back against the armrest, while Damen sat opposite him and leaned with his side against the backrest.

“You wanted to talk?” Laurent started then and looked to Damen, who looked at him with a soft gaze. “Yes I want.”

Laurent looked closely to him and Damen began: “I just wanted to make sure that you’re really okay with the case. Your thoughts are very attached to the boy and your own past, right?”

“Yes. I don’t know why, I just felt so sorry for him. I mean, we’ve had cases with kids before and nobody’s ever to as close to my kidneys as this one. It’s… It was like getting a mirror up front.”

Damen nodded understandingly.

“I shouldn’t worry about it, I know, especially because Ancel and his parents certainly care about Nicaise, as lovingly as they treated him, but somehow there’s something that’s bothering me.” Laurent took a short break and sighed in frustration, pulling his sleeves over his hands and crossed his arms in front of his chest as if he was cold. Damen stretched out his arm to him and stroked gently over his elbow: “If you want I can ask the captain tomorrow if he know where Nicaise is staying, then you can visit him if that helps?”

Laurent nodded: “This doesn’t sound bad, but let’s wait till tomorrow, not that I’m just overreacting or something.”

“You’re not overreacting; it’s all too understandable that you’re reacting this way after what you’ve been through.”

Laurent lowered his gaze: “Yes.”

“I know you don’t want to talk about it anymore, it’s perfectly okay with me.”

“Thank you.”

“Not for that, my love.”

Laurent smiled and leaned forward to Damen to kiss him. He was just so grateful for this man, he could cry out of happiness. He was blessed with him.

But Laurent’s cell phone vibrated and broke the moment. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the display, his eyes widening.

“It’s about Katie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the new chapter. :D   
It's extra fluffy - Because the next chapter will be a bit darker than the chapters before. ;)


	11. The missed connection

„Forgive me for having to get you out of your day off, especially so late in the evening, but as written earlier, it’s urgent“, Jord said as Damen and Laurent entered his office.

Nikandros and Pallas were already present. Pallas sat on the edge of the table in the room, under his eyes there were deep shadows. Nikandros, on the other hand, leaned against the wall, his arms crossed in front of his chest and his hair loosely tied together.

They both looked as if they had already a very long day behind them and would now be given more hours because of this emergency.

Laurent felt pity for the two men.

“I received bad news out of prison”, Jord began, after having his four detectives in the room and walking around the table, leaning against the back of his office chair: “It’s about Katie. She was found dead in her cell, she hanged herself.”

“She hanged herself? Why?” Pallas asked in horror.

“We don’t know that. A letter was found as a good-bye-letter but it was signed with a different initial and could be read more as a threat than anything else. The guard gave the letter to the linguistic forensics, they will tell us more when they find more out about it”, Jord explained.

“So, we are talking about murder?” Nikandros asked.

Jord nodded. “Yes, that’s why I want you both to go and check out the crime scene. One of the guards will be there and also our medical examiner is also there to check the corpse of Katie.”

“Okay”, Nikandros said: “Then let’s have a look there, come Pallas.”

Both men left the room after this.

Laurent had picked up the information and… He felt like he couldn’t breathe anymore. He turned around and left the office with big steps.

Jord watched him go in concern and Damen ran after him worried.

Laurent had to let that sink in. He had to get away from the office and… He walked up to the staff room, he opened the door and settled down on one of the beds as a slightly blackness overpowered him.

Just breathe calmly Laurent, he reminded himself mentally and tried to inhale deeply through his nose and exhale again through his mouth. He felt a pressure building up in him, trying to escape the cage called his body but it was unable to find a way out. Laurent’s heart beat faster and faster and a numb feeling came over his senses, everything turned around him and he felt uncomfortable.

“Oh God”, he mumbled quietly under his unsteady breathe and then jumped up. He chased around in the room like a restless jaguar on a stalk.

He put his hands on his temples and tried to massage them; he looked around the room and discovered a blue box on one of the lockers.

One.

Laurent continued to look around and began to count the items that had the color blue.

  
“Laurent?”

He didn’t hear the voice.

“Laurent.”

Slowly the voice got through him. But he had to focus on the colors. Four.

“Laurent!”

A soft scream escaped when someone touched him on his upper arm. He stopped like in a shock rigor and looked up. Damen. He looked into his brown warm eyes, which looked worried at him.

“Damen.” Laurent’s voice was more like a soft whisper than a stable tone.

“Hey. It’s alright, yeah? You’re safe”, said Damen reassuringly, slowly pulling his arm back from Laurent’s upper arm.

Laurent looked around in the room, then nodded slowly and looked back to Damen.

“Katie.” The name sounded uncertain from his mouth and he lowered his gaze. He hadn’t really cared about her, she would have needed his attention afterwards too. He could have been there for her. She was just a victim too and now? Now she’s dead. Whether it was her own will or someone else’s, it didn’t matter, she was dead. She didn’t deserve to die.

“Laurent? What are you thinking?” Damen asked him gently and Laurent didn’t look up, he just said in a whisper: “It’s my fault that she’s dead. I was too fixated on Nicaise all the time but Katie… She needed help too. She needed someone who understood her. She shouldn’t have been left alone. She needed someone. She was alone for so many years.”

“You’re right, she shouldn’t have been left alone but it’s not your fault that she’s dead”, Damen said gently but decisively: “If it was suicide, it was her decision and you couldn’t have stop her from that, it was too late for her anyway and if it was murder, then we’ll find that person and make them pay for it, yeah?”

Laurent shook his head violently: “No, don’t say that! It wasn’t too late for here. It’s never too late for traumatized people to get help and get over it. I… She was so strong, the whole time she was…” He breathed in deeply and shaky: “I talked to her, I put pressure on her in that case so we could find NIcaise but…“ He stopped talking, his voice trembled and tears filled his eyes, his hands clenched to fists and he let out a loud sobbing. He couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. “I left her alone. I could have helped her, you know?”

His legs gave away under his body and he went down on his knees. His whole body trembled and he couldn’t stop the tears, mercilessly they ran down his cheeks and he sobbed deeply.

He broke down. He allowed himself to do so.

In front of Damen he knew he was safe. He also knew that Damen said the truth. He couldn’t have helped her. If she decided to do so, she would have done it anyway. It was too late for her. She was so deep into the suction of Govart and their doing.

“But what if Nicaise… Oh God Damen. What if Nicaise?!”

“Hey, look at me. Laurent, look at me”, he heard Damen say softly. Laurent couldn’t look up. He had no strength to move. He felt Damen gently putting his hands on his cheeks and raising his head. Damen kneeled before him with a warm worried look on his face.

“Laurent, don’t forget what you said about Nicaise. You know that he is strong, he won’t go that way. He is like you, he is a strong warrior and he isn’t alone. He has Ancel and his parents, exactly like you had me back then.”

Laurent nodded slowly. He knew Damen was right. He knew it. Damen wouldn’t say a thing like that without meaning it.

“I’m sorry. It’s just…” Laurent broke off. How could he explain that? It was too much for him to take. Katie had described him exactly the situation Laurent had been in back then and… it doomed to him. “Oh God.”

“What is it?”

“Damen… We are so stupid. How couldn’t we see that earlier?” Laurent tried to get up, but he lost his balance and fell forward into Damen’s arms, who caught him and supported him up.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Come with me. I have to look for something in the old files”, Laurent said and then straighten up with Damen. He wiped his wet eyes and then took Damen’s hand to go outside with him, in the direction of the archive.

If what he thought was true, this case would take a whole new turn. On a personal level.

*

“Ah hello detectives”, Vannes greeted Pallas and Nikandros nicely.

“So you’re also that late here?” Nikandros replied grinning.

“Yes, as always when it was one of your cases and you even suspected suicide”, Vannes dais dryly, pointing to the dark blanket over Katies dead body which lay on a transport bed.

“I looked at them superficially and I’ll say it this way, either today’s kids are more dramatic about symbolism in suicides or you’re dealing with a sophisticated murderer”, she explained, looking back and forth between Nikandros and Pallas, who they just looked at helplessly.

“She doesn’t have a tongue anymore.”

Nikandros eyebrows shot up in surprise and Pallas jaw dropped.

“Please?” they asked almost at the same time.

“Exactly. The way I’ve seen it so far, she’s had her tongue cleanly removed, so the person behind it has an idea of his craft”, Vannes explained to the two Detectives.

“Oh my God”, Nikandros murmured under his breath.

“So, basically this entire suicide scenario was just a set up?” Pallas asked.

Vannes nodded: “I think so. She was already dead before the bed sheet was tied around her afterwards and she was hung up on it afterwards. I haven’t been able to clarify exactly what killed her yet, but I’ll do that in pathology. I’ll contact you both immediately when I know more.” She nodded to the two men and slid past them to tell one of her assistants to put drive the body out of the cell.

Pallas looked questioningly at Nikandros: “And now?”

“Now let’s take a closer look at the crime scene, maybe the murderer left another clue for us”, he said and went deeper into the cell. Pallas sighed tired and then followed him. The day is getting longer and longer, he thought.

*

“Laurent, what exactly are we looking for?” Damen asked and rubbed his eyes tiredly as he closed the folder that Laurent had given him.

“Following a pattern”, Laurent said briefly, flying over the pages of his open folder in his lap. “I’m starting to think we missed something. Something decisive that could bring a turn in this case. We missed a connection between the old case of Nicaise Parents, Govart and Katie and I also think… that it might get deeper than just those people.”

Damen frowned a little and looked at him thoughtful. What they could’ve missed? He looked back onto the folder in his own lap and his eyes grew wide.

“No way Laurent. This can’t have to do with him, never. He is in prison since when?”

“I know Damen. I didn’t thought about it either but I recalled the conversation I had with Katie and thought back about how Govar acted in front of us and it all make sense now for me. I just didn’t realize how big the rings around him were until now.”

“We need to tell the Captain about this, he could gave us more files from the cases, we don’t have all in the archive here.”

“I know. But first… Let me read this one to end and then we’re going back to the Captain. Pallas and Nik should be there too, so we can talk about everything.”

“Okay, good, then let’s do it like this.”

Damen sighed and put the folder away; he stood up and leaned over Laurent’s shoulder. If Laurent was right with it, then this case would made a big turn and he also was sure that Jord wouldn’t let Laurent continue the work on this case because he is personal affected by this.

Damen sighed. Anyway, he would do what it takes to help his boyfriend with that. He looked back over his shoulder and his hand clenched into a fist as he saw the picture of the man, who broke Laurent into pieces.

Richard deVere.


End file.
